LAHORE, July 12: Terrorists armed with advanced weapons and hand-grenades stormed a private hostel in the city’s densely populated area of Ichhra early Thursday morning and killed nine and injured as many under-training employees of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa prisons department.

According to a foreign news agency, the Taliban claimed responsibility for the pre-dawn attack. Police authorities said the gun-and-grenade attack was similar to terrorist attacks on an army camp in Gujrat and a police picket near the Babu Sabu Motorway interchange.

It is learnt that no security measures had been adopted for the trainees who were unarmed at the time of the attack.

According to witnesses and police, the assailants entered the three-storey building at about 5.30am when most of the trainee jail wardens were getting ready to go to their classes at the National Academy of Prisons Administration.

The indiscriminate firing and grenade explosion triggered panic among 31 trainees (28 from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and three from Azad Kashmir) and people living in adjoining areas.

DIG (Operations) Rai Muhammad Tahir told Dawn that a group of five to six militants had gone to the hostel on Tipu Sultan Road on bikes, entered the building without any hindrance and started firing on unarmed recruits.

The attackers also threw grenades in different rooms, but only one exploded, he said, adding that they reached the building’s roof while killing and injuring the recruits on each floor and soon escaped.

The DIG said the recruits used to walk to the academy adjacent to the Camp Jail without any security. He said the academy belonged to the federal government and was under the control of the interior ministry, adding that 86 recruits were attending the ongoing training course.

He said that because of lack of accommodation, 31 trainees had been kept in the private hostel by the academy, and the practice was being followed for several years.

The DIG said neither the prisons department itself had provided any security to the trainees nor had it approached Lahore police for the purpose.

IG Mohammad Habibur Rehman told reporters that three motorcycles and a car had been used by the terrorists who were equipped with advanced weapons and hand-grenades. He said initial investigation suggested that at least 10 terrorists had carried out the attack.

Syed Haleemullah, 26, of Takhatabad village in Peshawar, who suffered shrapnel wounds, said: “I and two others were in a room. I was offering prayers when we heard gunfire. One of us tried to lock the door, but a grenade hit our room. Ayyaz Khan, Nizaar Ali and I suffered multiple wounds, but survived as terrorists didn’t enter our room.”

Haleemullah, who joined the prisons department in 2007 and was posted at Mardan district jail, said he felt for a moment that death passed by him, adding that smoke filled the room. The firing continued for about 20 minutes.

He recalled that his fellow Azmat Janan, who was killed in the attack, was a very good man who got married only five months ago.

“We were enjoying our two months’ basic course. We visited a lot of places and monuments in Lahore.”

He said the course was to conclude on July 28.

Muhammad Ameer, 30, of Dera Ismail Khan, said he was sleeping on the roof along with four others and they were awakened by gunfire. Four of them managed to jump onto the roofs of adjacent buildings while the fifth was hit by a bullet and died.

“We four suffered multiple wounds as we fell on the lower structures. The firing was so intense that it shattered our nerves. The masked assailants continued to shout Allah-o-Akbar while firing,” Ameer of Peshawar Central Jail said. He was recruited in the jail department two months ago.

Those killed in the attack were identified as Qamar Zaman (27), Shafqat Baloch (28), Khudai Noor (30), Sardar Ali Khan (28), Azmat Janan (27), Muhammad Fiaz (25), Sharifuddin (29), Muhammad Ali (28) and Asif (28).

Their bodies were shifted to Mayo Hospital for autopsies.

The injured included Nizaar Ali, Muhammad Ayyaz Khan, Nasir, Asim, Sharifullah, Muhammad Rizwan, Syed Haleemullah, Asad Jaffar and Muhammad Ameer. They were admitted to Services Hospital.

The Punjab police chief constituted a high-level team, headed by Lahore CCPO Muhammad Aslam Tareen, to investigate the incident. Other members of the team are: Lahore SSP (Investigations), SP of CIA’s Organised Crime Unit, Counter-Terrorism Department SP, Special Branch SP, Model Town SP (Investigations) and two officers of major-rank from Military Intelligence and Inter-Services Intelligence.

A case was registered under sections 302, 324, 148 and 149 of the PPC, 7-ATA and 3/4 Explosive Act at the Samanabad police station on the complaint of drill instructor Muhammad Yousaf.

AFP adds: Taliban spokesman Ehsanullah Ehsan told the agency in a telephone call that the attack proved “no place is beyond our reach”.

He said five attackers had targeted the policemen because Taliban inmates were tortured in prisons, adding that the raid was “part of chain of attacks” that started in Punjab’s Gujrat district on Monday and would continue.

The killings, and a similar assault on the army camp on Monday, raised fears of renewed violence in Punjab which for the past year had seen a lull in Taliban attacks.

One survivor told AFP from his hospital bed that staff jumped frantically onto the rooftops of neighbouring houses to escape the hail of bullets.

“About 15 of us were sleeping on the roof and some were offering prayers when gunfire started downstairs. Some of my colleagues who went down to see what was happening were killed or wounded,” Mohammad Rizwan Shah, 23, said.

Police said the victims were shot as they slept on mats, now soaked with blood.

Mohammad Siddiq, a local resident, said he saw gunmen fleeing on motorcycles and a blood-drenched body lying in the street.